It was not so long ago that 18-3 knockout artist Sergei Pavlovich was advertised as the man to dethone Jon 'Bones' Jones as UFC Heavyweight Champion.
After back-to-back defeats in the Octagon, the 32-year-old now fights to bring himself back to the title; With his return to promotion for this coming weekend.
In anticipation of his long -awaited confrontation with 'Bigi Boy' in Saudi Aarabia, it's time to look back at the pair of insane knockouts that put him on the UFC Championship Radar.
Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty images
Sergei Pavlovich needed less than two minutes to Knock Tewis Te Knock
The UFC official period from Sergei Pavlovich could not have started worse; Put back in the very first round by Alistair Overeem via vicious soil and pound in 2018.
The Russian recovered that shock debut loss in almost literally, the best possible way, ie six huge consecutive knockouts, each of which came firmly within the opening stanza.
But from those six consecutive knockouts from the first round there were two heads and shoulders above the rest-end about colleague Ko artists Derrick Lewis and Tai Tuivasa, who arrived after only 55 and 54 seconds respectively.
Lewis was the first to be served on UFC 277: Pena vs Nunes 2 in July 2022, and it took only half a minute for Pavlovich 'The Black Beast' to rock with powerful hooks when the American came in.
With blood in the water, Pavlovic loaded with 10 unanswered bumps; Referee Dan Miragliotta called a stop to the match, although that interruption was later labeled 'premature' by Dana White.
'Bam Bam' was the next and at UFC Fight Night: Orlando in December 2022 the pair of KO artists almost started waving the fences as soon as the opening bell sounded.
Although he had been squatted by Tuisivasa a number of times, Pavlovich walked through the fire to score three large knockdowns before the referee entered to save the popular Australian.
A few months later, the Russian would end up a first round about Curtis Blaydes, before he met the British sensation Tom Aspinall and most recently, Alexander Volkov-Kan he returns to winning ways in the dunes of Arabia?
Sergei Pavlovich returns to the Octagon on UFC Fight Night: Adesanya vs Imavov
After seven months on the sidelines, Pavlovich was set up to return to action on the main map of UFC Fight Night: Adesanya vs Imavov on 1 February against popular Surinamese Juggernaut, Jairzinho 'Bigi Boy' Roos bush.
“This is part of life; You have an ups, and you have downs, [but] The most important thing is to come back to the gym, to work on your mistakes, to get better, to train and go back in, “Pavlovich told UFC News.
“You start working on your mistakes, you start looking at what went wrong and you start improving those purposes. Development is a way to record things; You lay, low, low and stay up … I just have to come out and do my job, do my work. “
The Russian comes in fighting evening, because the #4 heavyweight has been arranged and hopes that a big victory this weekend could see him a number one contamination against Ciryl Gane, or even a rematch with Alexander Volkov, secure.
“When it comes to what will happen in the future, let's first win on Saturday and we'll see about it,” said Het Heavenweight on his plans for 2025.
“Of course I want to fight as much as possible. I don't like to have only one fight a year – that's not what I'm satisfied with; I want to fight more often.
“It doesn't matter who they place for me, as long as I am healthy and can keep going, I would often want to fight.”
UFC Fight Night: Adesanya vs Imavov will go live on Saturday 1 February from Riyadh, Saudi -Arabia.
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